


Road Tripping

by awkwardhawk



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, IronHawk - Freeform, M/M, No Smut, i'm very thorry about that, just fluff and angst, road trip fic, thor is mentioned but is not in the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-29
Updated: 2013-07-01
Packaged: 2017-12-16 13:25:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/862523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awkwardhawk/pseuds/awkwardhawk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint and Tony must travel from New York to California to deliver a weapon to the LA SHIELD base. Clint thinks Tony is annoying and Tony thinks Clint is just plain scary. Sometimes the trip doesn't end when the car stops.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bumpy Ride

**Author's Note:**

> My friend Megan gave me an idea of a road trip fic, what started as a one shot ended up being 3 chapters.

“Okay, this makes no sense. You have to explain this to me again, Coulson.” Clint was pacing back and forth in the small office; he couldn’t believe what his handler had just told him.

Coulson sighed and rubbed his face with his hand. “For the fourth and last time, Agent Barton. Your mission is to drive with Tony from New York to California. He is carrying special cargo that cannot be entrusted to anyone but members of the Avengers. Seeing as you’re the only current Avenger and SHIELD agent available, you have to accompany Stark.”

Clint groaned and let himself drop on Coulson’s couch. “Why can’t we just fly the thing?”

“Because if it becomes unstable while on the air it’ll be harder to control than if it’s on the ground. You’re also driving a SHIELD issued car; we don’t trust Stark alone with one of those. Now, Fury has given the order, you leave in two hours.”

Irritated, Clint left the office; he made a show of how angry he was by slamming the door and stomping down the hallway. He could act like a child when he really wanted to, since they were making him spend close to two days with Tony. At least they weren’t asking him to also drive back with him, he really didn’t like Tony all that much. He would have suggested following Tony on his Ducati, but Coulson didn’t want Tony driving the car, great. He pulled out his phone and texted Tony. _I’ll be by to pick you up at the tower in an hour. Be ready._

Tony glanced at his phone as it vibrated. A text from Clint, so he was the one Coulson had chosen to send with him. He frowned as he thought about his relationship with the archer. Out of all the Avengers, they were the ones who clashed the most. Clint was an asshole whenever Natasha wasn’t around; he liked Steve but only to spar with. His relationship with Thor was iffy due to the whole Loki incident, and he would just exchange a few words with Bruce. His relationship with Tony was nothing short of horrible. They would argue and usually insult each other whenever they were together. This meant he had to deal with that for more than two days. He was seriously considering leaving Pepper a note: _If I go missing, please make sure they investigate Clint._ Yep, he would have to do just that. 

* * *

 

“Hurry up Stark, I texted you and told you be ready in an hour. You’ve had me waiting for twenty minutes now.” He would have left had Tony not been the one with the stupid package. He glared as the billionaire took his time putting his suitcase in the trunk and then the special package, which was a possible weapon of mass destruction, in the backseat. _Deep breaths Clint, inhale and exhale, just like the therapist at SHIELD told you._ He had a feeling he would be repeating this exercise a lot over the next few days. “Coffee? You had time to go buy Starbucks?”

Tony smirked as he climbed into the passenger side sipping his coffee. “Relax Cupid, it’s not like we’re in a hurry. Or do you have somewhere that you need to be. Although I doubt you do seeing as Coulson said this assignment’s time frame was two weeks. I think you can spare twenty minutes.” He gasped as Clint reached out and took his coffee away from him. “Harassment!”

Clint turned to glare at Tony as he sipped the coffee, it was good and it instantly put a smile on his face. “It is not harassment; I am the one that’s going to be driving. Therefore, I need the caffeine more than you. I thought you were a genius, Stark.” He smirked as Tony frowned, the one small joy of traveling with the tin can.

“You act as though we’ll be driving all night.” He risked a look at Clint and rolled his eyes when he saw the look on the archer’s face. “We are **not** driving the whole way without any stops. I do not trust you behind the wheel for forty hours straight. Seeing as I’m not allowed to touch the precious SHIELD car, we will be stopping for the night.”

There was no actual argument he could come up with that would counter Stark’s current stance. As a sniper there had been many missions that required him to stay awake for long periods of time. However, that was while staying in one spot the whole time and the end result was that he got to blast someone’s head off. He sighed and nodded. “Fine, we will stop for the night. That’s only because I won’t hesitate to murder you if I’m sleep deprived.”

Tony’s eyebrows rose in shock. “You would seriously murder a fellow Avenger?” The silence had him reaching for his phone, maybe they could wait on transporting the stupid thing.

“I won’t murder you, Tony. The amount of paperwork Coulson would have me do is not worth it.” He smirked knowing full well that he was scaring or insulting the billionaire next to him. “Besides, R&D takes too long developing arrows for me.”

“Is that all I am to you, an arrow maker?” Tony feigned being hurt before rolling his eyes and looking out the window, this was going to be a long ride. He just couldn’t figure out why Clint was the way that he was with him. He’d seen the archer during some pre-Loki days at SHIELD and had thought he was probably the only agent with a sense of humor. Then again the whole Loki thing had probably changed him. He turned to look at Clint once more before deciding the quiet was too much for him. As he reached for the radio Clint’s had swatted his. “Hey, I just wanted to put some music.”

Clint sent Tony a sideways glare, he was counting in Russian in his head. Was it possible for the man to go more than five seconds without noise? “You don’t know what you’re pressing. Some of these buttons look like normal car pieces, but there are some that fire rockets, nets, missiles… things like that.” He spoke in a slow voice just in case Tony wasn’t grasping what he was saying. Then again, he highly doubted accidentally firing a missile would deter the man from pressing a button on the car.

“I know which button is for the radio.” He moved his hand towards the dashboard only to get it swatted away again.

“That’s the net launcher.” They had only been driving for two hours, two measly hours and he wanted to kill him already.

He reached for another button but was stopped again.

“Rocket launcher.”

Every button and knob he reached for activated a damn weapon. “Does this car even have a radio?”

“Yes, but I’m rather enjoying this, so keep going.” Clint grinned and kept his eyes on the road. He had the car schematics memorized from top to bottom. He shook his head as Tony reached for another knob. “That’s the ‘vanisher’, you know, it makes us vanish.”

“What do you even need half these things for? You don’t even have a stupid cup holder you have so much crap on here. I’m surprised it doesn’t fly.” Tony crossed his arms over his chest like a petulant child and turned to look away from the dashboard. He could usually hold his own in a battle such as this one, but for the life of him he was actually quite irritated and was thankful he wasn’t driving the stupid SUV. He turned to glare at Clint as music started playing, of course he would do it while Tony wasn’t looking.

There was a look of pure satisfaction on Clint’s face as the billionaire turned to glare at him. It had been a way to pass the time; Tony had spent a good hour trying to figure out where the radio was. Clint was surprised he didn’t know, after all the man had hacked SHIELD. Apparently he hadn’t read the equipment manuals. They spent a good hour and a half listening to music and Clint wondering whether he’d broken Tony, the man still hadn’t said anything since he had turned on the radio. He frowned as he realized they didn’t really have anything to drink or munch on. A look at the time revealed it was only three in the afternoon; they wouldn’t stop at a motel until maybe eight. He changed lanes and grinned as the sat nav showed him a Wal-Mart nearby.

Tony looked up as Clint slowed down and made a turn on a random street. This was it, bird boy was going to kill him and hide his body in the woods. He had been trying to stay as quiet as he could after Clint turned the radio on; he had grabbed his starkpad and was writing up equations to send to Bruce. They did that, they sent equations to each other in the hopes that one of them wouldn’t be able to solve it, thus declaring the other the winner. He kept looking out the window wondering where Clint was going to stop to kill him; he’d go back to SHIELD and say a bear ate him or something. He jumped a mile high as Clint spoke.

He’d been watching Stark the minute he’d turned off the highway to make a small detour for some snacks, he looked scared out of his mind. “You look like you’re going to your death, Tony.” He said and then laughed when Tony jumped in his seat, he shook his head and turned to look at the map on the screen, they were close.

“Why must you say things like that? No normal person says that.” Tony’s voice cracked a little as he spoke. He turned to look at what Clint was looking at, “Is that a map of where you’re going to hide the body? Did SHIELD set you up to this? I bet it was Fury’s idea, my money is on him, or Hill.”

“Will you relax? How much caffeine have you had today, more importantly, have you slept at all?” He chuckled as he saw the nervousness in Tony’s eyes. He probably hadn’t slept much, otherwise he’d realize that he had the Iron Man suitcase in the back and could probably kill Clint with one of those repulsor blasts. “We are just stopping by at Wal-Mart for some snacks, something the genius forgot to bring.” He said as he pulled into the Wal-Mart. He could see how Tony would think they were driving somewhere remote, but all these small towns they would be driving through had giant Wal-Marts in the middle of nowhere. “Come on, tin can.”

Tony looked at Clint as he parked and got out of the car. He was about to say that they couldn’t leave the weapon in the car unattended when he saw Clint grab the suitcase and start heading towards the store. Without a second thought he undid his seatbelt and went after Clint. It was odd for such a big store to be in what he considered the middle of nowhere, however, looking around he realized there were small houses nearby, just not many. “What is this place?” he asked as he caught up to Clint. The store had a lot of things considering its location.

“It’s called a Wal-Mart; I thought you were a genius.” Clint snorted as he grabbed a cart and put the suitcase on it, the damn thing was heavy he wasn’t going to be carrying it around the place. He moved towards the food section and began dumping things into the cart. He looked at Tony “What, you’re going to tell me you’ve never been to a Wal-Mart?”

“Well…”

Clint stopped shoving things into the cart as he stared in utter shock at Tony “You have never been to a Wal-Mart?!” His loud question causing a few heads to turn their way, he glared at them until they looked away.

Tony frowned as people went back to their shopping. “Pepper has been doing all the shopping since I hired her, then Happy did it, then Jarvis. I haven’t really had time to go on a shopping spree, you know.” He raised an eyebrow as they moved from the food section to the pet section, then the clothes section, it had everything! “How… this place is huge! They have everything, look they even have computers, mine are better but still. I feel the need to buy out the whole store. Do we have one of these in New York?”

“Wait, you’re not kidding?” One look at Tony’s face had him just nodding. “We have a few of these in New York; there are also some in California and just about every state that we’ll be driving through.” He kept walking through the store despite being done with the snack shopping. The look on Tony’s face made him feel somewhat happy, that was odd. He shrugged off the feeling and kept pointing stuff out to Tony and laughed when Tony decided he wanted to buy a snuggie. “You know the motel we stop at will have blankets.”

“Yes, but this one has sleeves on it!” He held up the box of the camouflaged snuggie and grinned.

Clint rolled his eyes but grabbed the box from Tony and added it to the cart; if it kept him quiet then he’d take it. “I figure we’re done, we need to hit the road to get more miles in before we stop for the night.” Without really asking for confirmation from Tony he walked over to the checkout counter.

He stopped to look at the archer as he paid for the things and loaded up the car with their stuff. For once he’d actually spent time with him without wanting to blast him to the next world, interesting. He followed him out as he saw the archer head towards the exit; this was the first time in his life that he was actually speechless. “Can I pick the music, now?”

“Nope. My car, my tunes.”

“Dah… it’s not even your car, it’s SHIELD’s car.”

“It is when I’m driving it.” Clint reached over to grab his soda and a bag of chips, his hands leaving the steering wheel for a few seconds.

Tony’s eyes widened as Clint let go of the wheel. “Ten and two! Ten and two!” He yelled as he grabbed on to the side of his seat.

“Relax, it’s straight road.” Clint put one hand back on the wheel while opening his bag of chips with the other and his teeth.

“Easy for you to relax, you’d be killing a genius.” He didn’t have a problem with some reckless driving, but Clint was currently going over eighty miles per hour, at that speed anything can happen.

* * *

 

At around nine they pulled into the least shady looking motel they could find. Clint had vetoed every suggestion Tony had made, he grumbled as he walked over to the small office to get the room. “Hi, yeah I’d like a room.” Once again, Clint had vetoed getting two rooms, something about it being safer to be in one. SHIELD agents and their paranoia. The overly smelly man at the office window grumbled something and slid the intake notebook over to Tony. Just as he was going to write his name, Clint snatched it from him. “What?”

“Geez Tony, we might need to train you up a bit. Or at least put you in some of the power point presentations Coulson gives.” He wrote down two fake names and slid it back to the man behind the counter. The man looked from him to Tony and mumbled something about the world being a bit too liberal. Clint glared at him and then put an arm over Tony’s shoulders. “Problem?”

Tony was really getting irritated with this whole ‘I’m an agent and I must act like a ninja 24/7’ thing Clint had going on. He turned to look at the man behind the window as Clint put his arm over his shoulders. He was caught too off guard to say anything to either of the men. The man simply shook his head and threw the keys at Clint. The archer caught them with his free hand and turned Tony around and towards their room. “What just happened?”

“We got a room.” Clint informed him like he was a child. He carried the suitcase with the weapon as well as his duffel bag into the room while Tony carried his armor case and his suitcase. It wasn’t too shabby, it was a motel and it looked about as good as a motel in the middle of the country can look. He placed the weapon suitcase on the nightstand next to the bed and his duffle on the floor. “I’ll get the food from the car.”

This wasn’t where he wanted to be, he would have been in a five star hotel if he had it his way. Actually had he had it his way, he would already be in California, but Fury didn’t want him flying the weapon either in his suit or on a quinjet. Aside from being stuck in a motel in the middle of nowhere USA, he had been denied some diner food. Clint said it wasn’t safe to stay out in the open for long and something about being able to get a few more miles in before they actually had to stop for the night. He’d been stuck getting drive-thru taco bell with Clint. He placed his armor case on the other nightstand and threw his suitcase on the bed. “You didn’t even let me ask him if he had a room with two beds.” He said as Clint walked back into the room.

Clint rolled his eyes and threw one of the take-out bags Tony’s way. “Look. It is better if he tries to erase us from his mind. This way neither you nor I are remembered. He can just go on about his closed-minded life.” He wasn’t irritated at this point, he was actually somewhat hurt. He knew Tony liked to hit on anything that moved which was both women and men, so why was he making a big deal over being thought of as Clint’s boyfriend. He wouldn’t have made such a big deal about it had it been the other way around.

“Alright, mister spy assassin ninja… dude. I was just wondering how we were going to do this seeing as there is one bed and two of us.” Tony thought he’d heard a tone of hurt in Clint’s voice but that couldn’t be it. Why would Clint be hurt over him wanting both of them to be able to sleep in beds?

“I can sleep on the floor, Tony. I am trained to sleep anywhere, if I can sleep on a tree I can sleep on the floor.” He opened up his tacos and started munching on them, it wasn’t the ideal food, but he didn’t want to be stuck with Tony in a diner. He would talk while they looked at what they were going to order, and while they waited, and while they ate. It was just too much for him. He pulled out his phone and smiled as he read Natasha’s text. _Are both of you still alive and breathing? Coulson wants to know._ Another bite out of his taco and he was dialing Coulson’s number. “Just checking in, we’re currently at a motel in Illinois, don’t worry Stark is still alive.”

Tony turned to glare at Clint. “Really? Tell him I request to be sent with the spider next time.”

“I was leaving a message, Tony, and I hung up already so you call him and tell him yourself. Though, I would like to see how Tasha would handle you.”

“ _Tasha_ wouldn’t handle me.” Tony said, though his voice was full of doubt.

Clint smirked into his taco “If that’s what you want to believe.”

“Now that we’re on the subject of, _Tasha._ What’s up between you guys?” He had a bet going with Bruce that they were involved as more than friends, while Bruce believed they were just really cool ninja bros.

He arched an eyebrow at Tony. “That’s Natasha to you, or she’ll kill you. Also, there is nothing between us, she’s just my partner.”

Tony titled his head in disbelief. “You mean to say there’s nothing going on between you guys at all, nothing. You guys are just two master assassins doing your assassin…ing thing?”

“Yup. Nothing between the two of us, actually she’s currently dating someone.” Clint smirked “She’s also not really my type.”

“Oh?” Tony arched an eyebrow and grinned. He remembered seeing the archer flirt with a guy in one of the lower levels of the Avengers tower. “Ooooh, so Coulson?”

Clint rolled his eyes, why did everyone assume he was either with Nat or Phil? “Nope, he’s just my handler, besides he’s like family to me… no.” He threw his trash back into the take-out bag and carried it over to the nearest waste bin by the desk. “Well, I’m going to go shower, not that sharing time hasn’t been fun.”

Tony snorted as the archer grabbed some clothes and headed for the bathroom. He was such a riddle to him, and he was sure he did it on purpose. One minute he was acting like a huge bag of dicks and the next he could be the nicest guy ever, it was driving Tony insane. He would figure him out before the end of the trip even if it killed him, and in this case that ending was a high probability. He changed into some sweats while Clint was in the shower, he looked at the bed and shook his head, there was enough space for the two of them. With that in mind he left one side of the bed empty, maybe Clint wouldn’t mind sharing a bed with him. He looked up as Clint emerged from the bathroom; he tried to ignore the feeling of want that was trying to consume him. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and Tony was having a hard time looking away from the toned body before him.

“Coulson said he’s happy you’re not dead yet.” Clint said to break the silence that had consumed the room.

He looked up at Clint’s face and shook his head. “I swear the SHIELD sense of humor…” At last the small tension that had built up was gone and he laughed.

Clint eyed the empty space in the bed, he had said he’d sleep on the floor though so he put his clothes away and grabbed one of the extra blankets from the closet. Stealing one of the pillows from the bed, he laid down on the floor. It wasn’t comfortable, floors never are, but he’d definitely had worse. He just hoped this floor didn’t have unwanted pests.

He sat there for a moment trying to figure out what to say or do. He didn’t want the archer to think he was hitting on him, but he didn’t feel right with him sleeping on the floor. “Look uhm, I’m not a crazy sleeper. I don’t take up the whole bed, which means there is space for you.” Tony looked away from Clint who was now staring at him as if he had grown a second head. “I’m not trying to do anything funny, it’s just that… I figured the floor just doesn’t look comfortable.”

His head shot up as soon as Tony started speaking, he was shocked that the billionaire was actually offering to share the bed with him. He grinned as Tony looked away and started stuttering, he had never seen him so nervous before. “Alright, just don’t snore or I’ll stab you with the knife I sleep with.”

Tony paled and laughed nervously as Clint climbed onto the bed with him. He thought he saw a flash of something silver being placed under Clint’s pillow but decided to ignore it. He was joking; he had to be joking, right?

“Relax, it was a joke.” Clint chuckled. He was starting to like this game. Well, a game to him, he doubted Tony had any idea as to what he was up to. “Right, well, we should sleep.”

He woke up feeling a slight weight over his chest. His eyes didn’t open immediately; he tried to sense if there was any danger. When he deduced no one was in the room aside from Tony and himself he let his eyes open. His eyes wondered to his chest and his breath hitched as he realized it was Tony’s arm. Tony was snoring softly next to him, his head nuzzled by his shoulder. For a moment he stared at the billionaire, it just felt right. Oh shit. No. shit. His eyes widened and with it the need to get as far away as he could overcame him. He swallowed hard and closed his eyes, he wanted to go away, but if he did then Tony would wake up. Tony didn’t sleep much as it was already, and right now he was actually sleeping instead of trying to build another robot. He took a deep breath and kept an eye on Tony until he felt himself being pulled into sleep once more.

* * *

 

Tony woke up feeling rather rested and warm. He nuzzled his head against the warmth only to stop in fear. Oh no. He was cuddling Clint? Oh. Ah. Uhm. He was cuddling Clint, he was cuddling Clint! Wait. He was cuddling with Clint and hadn’t woken him up? He looked at the archer’s face, his heart melting at the sight. Clint could be a rather intimidating individual, but like this he just looked peaceful. He held his breath as Clint shifted a little, right he had to get up, let him sleep. As slowly and quietly as he could he got up and made his way over to the bathroom. He would get ready and go get them some breakfast.

The absence of a body next to him woke Clint up, automatically on alert. He looked to his side, Tony wasn’t there. Next place his eyes zeroed in on was the bathroom which was empty. “No. No. No. No.” He would have woken up had they been attacked or something. As fast as he could he changed out of his pajamas, he was in the process of putting on his boots when Tony walked in with two bags in his hands. He wanted to bang his head against something; he’d almost had a heart attack. Stupid Tony.

“Hey Cupid.” Tony took in the look on Clint’s face and frowned. “Something wrong?”

Clint groaned and closed his eyes. “Next time, wake me up?”

Tony shrugged and turned to look at the bags he’d placed down on the table. “Figured I could get breakfast for us, nothing happened.”

“Yes, but something could have happened. You didn’t have your armor with you.” Clint tried to sound nonchalant. “Phil would make me do a ton of paperwork if something happened to you.”

He arched an eyebrow “Really? Is that the only reason you were worried?”

“I was not worried, Stark.”

“Sure seemed like it to me.” Tony grinned as Clint huffed and looked away. “Anyway, I went and got us some breakfast. Didn’t know exactly what you liked for breakfast but I figured everyone likes regular pancakes.” He got a container of pancakes and gave it to Clint. He’d actually seen Clint eating breakfast in the SHIELD mess hall one day; he was eating pancakes with an unholy amount of syrup on them, meaning he knew exactly what to order for him. No reason for Clint to know though, he would get all smug and stuff.

Clint grinned as he got the container from Tony, he was actually rather hungry. “They’re my favorite. I don’t like any of those fancy pancakes with fruit or other things. Did you get any–”

Tony held out a small bag full of syrup packets.

“Yes! Pancakes are not pancakes without some good ol’ fashioned syrup.” He reached into the bag and pulled the syrup cups out, it was a rather big amount of syrup… the amount of syrup he put on his pancakes usually. He looked up at Tony and arched an eyebrow questioningly.

“What?” Tony made himself busy with his own container of pancakes, his where chocolate chip with cinnamon, they didn’t exactly require much syrup. “I just got a big amount so we wouldn’t run out."

Clint nodded and began pouring the syrup on his pancakes. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” The amount of syrup Clint put on his pancakes was crazy. “Do those even taste like pancakes anymore?”

“Yeah. Like really good pancakes.”

“I thought you were supposed to eat all healthy and stuff, kind of like Natasha does. SHIELD regiment and all that crap.” Tony dug into his pancakes before stopping and going through the second bag. Ah, coffee, glorious coffee. He’d bought three large coffees, two for him and one for Clint. “Here.”

Clint got his coffee from Tony and nodded another thanks. “With the amount of workouts I do, it’s actually okay for me to eat as much as I do. Granted, this is rather unhealthy, but I can’t be bothered to care.”

Tony smirked but didn’t say anything else. After breakfast they loaded up the car and set off once more, they still had quite a way to go. They’d have to stop one more time overnight before reaching their final destination; Tony just hoped he’d be able to make it that far.

* * *

 

Clint looked over at Tony who was fidgeting with his phone and mumbling something. He’d been trying to get the courage to ask Tony to ride back to New York with him. Technically they didn’t have to return the car to the New York office, but it was the best excuse he could think of to spend more time with Tony. It had taken him this whole trip to realize the reason why he couldn’t stand being around Tony was that he had a major crush on him. At first he’d thought Tony was full of himself, but these past three days had shown him differently. Especially during the second night they spent at a motel. This one did have a two bed room available and Tony had gotten one of those. This meant they didn’t end up cuddling like they had the night before. It just so happened to also be the night Clint’s mind decided to grace him with a Loki nightmare. He’d woken up on the floor scratching at his chest trying to get Loki’s scepter away from him his heart. Tony had coaxed him back into reality with jokes and sarcastic remarks. Afterwards he hadn’t even made fun of him or tried to force him into talking about his nightmare. Clint was in trouble, he had it bad for Tony.

He kept his eyes on his phone, trying to distract himself from staring longingly at Clint. He wanted to ask the archer if he wanted to take a jet back to the tower with him, but it meant he’d make Clint wait while he made sure the California SHIELD facility had the weapon safe and under controlled conditions. Clint would probably say no or come up with an excuse as to why he couldn’t just chill back while waiting for him to finish his part of the job. “So are you taking a—”

Clint had once again stopped looking at the road to turn towards Tony when his phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and answered the phone. It was Coulson with a mission, great of all the time to have a stupid mission. “It has to be as soon as possible?” Coulson’s sarcastic answer of ‘No Clint, I’m sure you could just handle it next year.’ had him glaring at the highway. “Alright, I’ll get on a jet as soon as we get to Malibu.”

Tony felt all his hopes and dreams wither at Clint’s last words to Coulson. He didn’t know if Clint would have actually accepted his invitation to wait for him so they could take a jet back together or not, but now he wouldn’t even have the chance to ask. “Mission, Katniss?”

“Yup.” Clint sighed trying not to let his frustration show. Of all the times, damn it Coulson! “I have to go as soon as we get to the Malibu facility.”

The silence that fell over them was not like the comfortable silent moments they’d managed to have while driving. This silence was filled with tension, perhaps Clint couldn’t wait to get to Malibu so he could leave. Tony thought they’d been having a nice fun time. Except for Clint’s nightmare, they had been getting along; the archer had even shown him the button for the radio. “So…” he’d had enough of the silence. “Can I ask what the mission is about or is it a SHIELD secret?”

Clint smirked at Tony’s question. He was glad that the billionaire had finally said something; the silence was starting to kill him. “If I said it is a secret, would it stop you from having Jarvis hack the database?” The look Tony gave him confirmed that it wouldn’t. “It’s an intel mission, I’m being sent to gather intel about a possible Hydra compound overseas.”

Tony turned serious once Clint actually told him what the mission was about it. Sure he was just supposed to be gathering intelligence, but it was about Hydra. The few encounters he’d had with Hydra hadn’t been the best ever. He looked down at his phone and began hacking into the database to get as much information as possible. “Are you meeting up with the spider for the mission?”

He shook his head. “Nope, it’s a solo mission. It’s just gathering intel, nothing I haven’t done before.” It warmed his heart to hear the concern in Tony’s voice, granted he was usually concerned when any of them were sent out without any other avenger. “Do I detect a hint of worry, tin man?”

“Puh! Yeah right, just wondering how many deadly assassins will be at the tower when I get back.” Tony rolled his eyes and tried to seem nonchalant. “Just remember you’re an avenger so if anything happens, you can call for us.”

“We’re here.” Clint said as they pulled into a gated facility, he flashed his badge at the security guard before driving into the facility. It gave him something to focus on as he tried to get over the surge of feelings, maybe he should tell Tony he liked him. No, it wouldn’t be fair to tell him that and leave on a mission. He would do it when he got back, but he was going to give Coulson hell for making him do this.

Tony shifted his focus from Clint to handing the weapon over to the scientists and giving them instructions on what tests had to be run. Every few seconds he looked over to see what Clint was doing, each time he was happy the archer was still with him instead of heading towards a jet. Coulson was the biggest cockblock ever, well, in his book.

Clint took his time filling out the required forms for handing the car over to SHIELD. He didn’t want to leave, but it was his job and he actually still liked doing it, just not at this precise moment. He nodded at the agent in charge of taking the car from him and handed over the keys. There was no way he could delay leaving any more, if he did then Coulson would probably call him to yell at him. “Hey Tony.”

“Yes dear?” Tony turned to look at Clint, not that he wasn’t already looking, because he wasn’t. He handed back the clipboard to the scientist in front of him and waved him away. There was no way he was going to have a nosy scientist listening to whatever Clint was going to tell him, even if it was just goodbye.

He rolled his eyes and laughed, he was going to miss him. “I’m taking off. Coulson will get antsy if I don’t report from a jet soon.” He paused and rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. “Uhm. Thanks, I’ll radio in for backup if anything happens.”

“Alright, just make sure it’s not early in the morning, I do need my beauty sleep.” Yup, he was going to use humor to keep from showing what he was really feeling.

“You’re an asshole, Stark.” He turned to leave wanting to leave on a happy note.

Tony grinned and was getting ready to leave, himself when a thought struck him. “Hey Barton, wait up.” He jogged towards Clint as he fished something out of his pocket. “Here.”

Clint looked at the titanium bracelet that Tony handed him and nodded. It looked almost like the ones Tony used to call the Iron Man suit to him. What did Tony want him to do with it? “It’s a very cute bracelet Tony.”

He rolled his eyes and scoffed at Clint. “It’s not a bracelet.”

“Uhm…” Clint held up the bracelet and arched an eyebrow.

“Okay, it is, but it also serves as a communicator and it even has a tracker. It has a direct line to the suit, it’s still in beta mode, but it’s a Stark product.” He didn’t design shit products, so this worked as well as it could.

Clint put it on, it was a bit Tony but that’s what made it awesome. “Thanks. See ya back at the Tower in a few weeks.”


	2. Missing You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is moping, Clint is actually a five year old in disguise. Natasha and Coulson get headaches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small gun scene with Clint, but nothing too violent. No gory details. I don't think it warrants any warnings, but yeah.

**Tony**

Leaving California took longer than he had expected; honestly he didn’t think he’d be there that long. One day, that’s all he was willing to give them to begin with and that was being very generous. Of course it took him three days to pry himself away from the overly weird scientists in Malibu. Now he was back at the tower and feeling as miserable as ever. He didn’t even have the energy to argue with Steve. He had taken to hiding out in lab working on giving Jarvis some cooler features, perfecting his armor, and making new arrows. Yeah, that last bit was probably occupying more time than it should. He’d created emp arrows, net arrows, gas arrows, and even sonic arrows. There was also the new bow he’d made; it had a tracker and everything. At the moment he was working on a better suit for Clint, the one he had was too vulnerable. “Don’t want to talk to anyone, J.” he said as Jarvis told him Natasha was asking for him.

Natasha huffed as Jarvis relayed Tony’s message. She couldn’t contact Clint while he was in a mission, and Tony had been acting very weird since getting back from California. She turned to look at Bruce; they were all worried, something must have happened to cause Tony to close in on himself. Alright, Bruce was worried for Tony, she was worried for Clint. If something had happened to set Stark in on this mood, then how was Clint doing? Coulson didn’t think it warranted allowing her to talk to Clint, so she would have to get it out of Tony. “Okay. Time for plan B, Bruce.”

Tony jumped as the vent nearest to him flipped open. “For crying out loud!” He hadn’t really been monitoring the vents, the only one who ever went into them was Clint, and well he was away. He turned to look at his suit, making sure for the hundredth time that it was ready to go at a moment’s notice. He carried the other half of Clint’s com unit with him in case the archer sent a message. “What part of ‘don’t want to talk to anyone’ did you not understand, widow?”

“There’s something going on and I’m going to harass you until you tell me.” Natasha glared at Tony and moved closer to him. This was about her best friend, and she was not going to let it just be. “Something happened on the trip to California and I need to find out what.”

He was so not in the mood to be harassed right now. “Look Romanoff, I am not in the mood.”

Natasha scoffed and pinned him against his lab table. “This has something to do with Clint, and I’m not letting him get hurt by you.”

“Why does it have to be me hurting him?” He glared right back at her, why didn’t anyone think he could keep someone happy? He was never good enough to be with anyone, never good enough to love someone. “In any case, how do you know it has anything to do with him?”

“Your reaction just now, that’s what confirmed it to me.” She took a step back; maybe this wasn’t what she had thought it was. The way that they acted around each other, everyone was sure they really hated each other. Maybe they didn’t actually hate each other, but felt the opposite of hate. “What happened, Stark?”

Tony groaned and let his shoulders slump. “We took a road trip.”

This was possibly the most confusing thing Tony could have said. “Yes. You took a road trip, what does that have to do with your current behavior?”

He wondered for a minute whether he should tell her anything, she was Clint’s best friend and if anything she would either have insider information or she would tell Clint. Nah, it didn’t seem like she would tell Clint whatever he told her. “He’s amazing, Natasha. He reminds me a little of Pepper, the way he doesn’t take my shit, he’s willing to tell me off if he thinks I’m being too big headed.”

“I don’t take your shit.”

“Yeah, but you scare me. Then there’s the whole, black widows eat their mates thing. No thanks.” He earned a punch for that remark, but he was starting to feel a bit more like himself. “I don’t know. There’s just something about him. The way he laughs, or drowns his pancakes in syrup, or how excited he gets when he talks about shooting his bow.” He had it bad.

Natasha arched an eyebrow, Tony had it really bad. She could kind of see it, Clint was great, but she saw him as a brother. Now she was wondering whether Clint felt the same way Tony felt, if he didn’t then poor Stark, if he did then it was no problem. “Tell him how you feel.” 

Tony shook his head and went back to working on Clint’s suit. “Nope.” He would mess it up; he always managed to mess things up. There was also no way that he was going to tell Clint anything, the consequences to him fucking this up meant losing Clint’s friendship. Let’s face it, he sucks at having friends and messing up the few he’s managed to gain doesn’t seem like a good idea. “I rather not mess things up, you know.”

 

 

**Clint**

“And now I’m here, stuck in this hell hole, doing stuff I much rather not be doing.” He muttered as he tried to change his position, this intel mission had him in a desert in the middle of nowhere Egypt. “I could be chilling by a pool right now instead of roasting under this hot sun.”

Coulson rolled his eyes for what had to be the billionth time. “Radio silence means you shut your mouth and do your surveillance quietly.” Clint had been whining the whole time, actually the whining had begun the minute the jet he’d taken from Malibu had landed on the helicarrier. He knew his agent would be extra irritating after the road trip, but this was ridiculous.

Clint frowned as he took a swig of water from his canteen. “I know what radio silence means.”

“Oh, I know you know what it means, it’s obvious you just don’t know how to exercise it.” Yep, he was tired of hearing Clint complain and whine. He was never sending him on anything else with Tony. Although he’d seen the bracelet Clint was wearing and it looked an awful lot like the ones Stark had designed for his suit. When he saw it he arched an eyebrow, but Clint merely shrugged and offered no information.

“Hard to exercise anything in this heat, have I mentioned how hot it is? I will sic Tasha on you for making me suffer this way. Why couldn’t she be the one to do this again?” This didn’t seem like it required his special skill, it actually required almost no skills. Why they couldn’t just hand it off to some random newbie was beyond him.

He was going to kill him, or accidentally forget him in the desert. “Director Fury said you; I didn’t really question it, Clint. Yes, I know it’s hot; I am stuck in this place with you, remember?”

“No, you’re not stuck here with me. You’re in the safe house not dying because you have the AC turned on. Do not try to belittle my pain, Coulson.” He grinned as he looked down his scope at the Hydra compound. The mission had better soon turn from one of surveillance to taking down the place or he was going to give Fury hell. “Man, I have sand in places I didn’t think sand could reach. It’s the lame kind of sand too.”

“Lame? How is the sand lame?” Alright, so perhaps this radio silence thing wasn’t working because he kept answering to Clint’s whining. He had a soft spot for the archer and could actually handle it all better than most. In all honesty, while the whining was irritating him, they didn’t exactly have any other forms of entertainment in the safe house.

Clint smirked “Yeah, you know… it’s too sandy.”

“It is sand, Clint.”

“I know, Coulson, but couldn’t it be a bit cooler? Kind of like the sand that the sandman uses for the dreams.” This is what he got for cockblocking.

Coulson wanted to smack his head against the desk, but there was no need for unnecessary pain. “I’d be worried that you’re starting to hallucinate, but this is normal for you. Care to elaborate on whatever you’re talking about?”

He frowned; annoying Phil was proving harder than he’d thought. “Like in Rise of the Guardians, you know the sand that the sandman uses to make your dreams. Did you not watch it?”

“Just because I babysit you children, doesn’t mean I watch kids’ movies.”

“You hurt me, Coulson. This just means that when we —” Clint shifted to get a better view of what he’d only gotten a glimpse of.

The sudden silence had Coulson sitting up and moving over to the laptop. “Clint, talk to me, what’s going on?”

He eyed Tony’s suit bracelet before responding to Coulson. “I see major movement. Two trucks just showed up, they’re loading weapons onto them. We have to do something, Coulson.”

“Alright, hold on.” This just had to happen on a surveillance mission. He switched channels and asked to speak to Fury. They would have to act now or risk allowing something dangerous to happen in a public area. “Barton, we’ve been given the order. Neutralize the enemy, retrieve the weapons.”

Clint nodded as he lined up his sights on the men guarding the compound entrance. He would have to act fast; he only had at most a minute after taking down the guards before getting swarmed by their back-up. “Coulson, I’m going to need back up.”

He was already getting ready as Clint’s voice came through the coms. “I’m on my way.” Luckily for them, the safe house was only a few minutes from the compound, it wasn’t much of a house as it was a shack, but it was equipped with guns, ammo, and bombs. He grabbed his guns and Clint’s bow, he’d insisted Clint wouldn’t need it and therefore the agent had left it there. He was now regretting his decision; Clint was at his best with the bow.

“Right, I’m moving in.” He took down the two guards, dropped the sniper rifle and took off running towards the gate. With his handguns he took out the men that tried to rush him, he rolled and took refuge behind a wall. Coulson had left exactly three minutes ago, that meant it would be another five minutes before he reached the compound. He took a deep breath and looked over the side of the wall, a bullet flew his way. Trajectories, he was great at those, he closed his eyes as he calculated where the shot came from. He stuck his head out again drawing another bullet before firing his shot. A smirk appeared on his face as he heard the shooter’s body drop to the ground. There were still more though, and Coulson would be there in three minutes.

Coulson hit the gas pedal on the jeep, Clint was a magnet for trouble and for some reason always managed to get hurt in the most simple of missions. “Almost there how many?”

“I had counted sixteen while doing surveillance. I killed the two guards at the gate, three that tried to get me, and one right now. That means we have ten left, including the two drivers.” His eyes widened as he heard one of the truck engines start, shit. He looked over the side of the wall again to see one of the drivers trying to drive off with the few weapons they had managed to load up before Clint began his attack. The weapons couldn’t make it out. He cursed and ran towards the truck, avoiding the shots that were fired his way. The truck was gaining speed and soon he wouldn’t be able to catch up to it, if he stopped to shoot out the tires he would risk getting shot. However, if he didn’t do that, he risked allowing the truck to leave with the weapons. He stopped in his tracks and shot at the tires of the truck, a bullet tore through his leg as he watched the truck swerve and hit the gate. At least he had stopped the truck. “Fuck.”

He reached the compound just as Clint took a bullet to the leg. He drove the jeep and set it in front of Clint to give him some cover. “Just one mission one mission where you don’t get hurt.” He handed him his bow and smiled at the look of relief in Clint’s face.  

Clint snorted and took his bow, instantly feeling a whole lot better about the situation. “Where’d be the fun in that?” He put on his quiver and pulled out an arrow, the driver of the truck was out which left nine men for them to take down. “Nine is the magic number.”

Coulson nodded as he readied his guns, he looked over the jeep and lowered his head as shots were fired their way. Whoever was shooting towards them sucked as none of the bullets hit the Jeep, hopefully the rest of them sucked as much as this one did. As fast as he could he stepped over the side of the truck and fired a few shots the man’s way. He grinned as one of his bullets hit the man in the chest sending him to the floor. “Eight.”

 

* * *

 

They took the remaining eight men without much of a struggle, once Clint had his bow it was easier for him to move around and kill every single sucker he saw. In the end they were able to take possession of the base. Coulson shouted out orders to the clean-up crew before walking over to where Clint was being looked at by a medic. “What’s the verdict?”

“I’ll live. I will, however, be out of service for a couple of weeks. You know how those gunshot wounds go, they take a while healing and shit.” Clint grinned as the medic rolled his eyes. He had a reputation of going back into the field earlier than recommended. The medic had said two months; Clint took that as three weeks tops. Lucky for him the bullet hadn’t hit any major arteries or bones. It was, if somewhat sad, one of the smallest injuries he’d had in a while.

Coulson shook his head as he moved alongside the medics carrying Clint’s stretcher. They were now on their way back state side and he’d be finally rid of Clint. Sometimes it was like babysitting a five year old, the way the archer acted. He looked up as Clint started threatening one of the medics. “Agent Barton, will you let the medics do their job.”

Clint turned to glare at Coulson. “I was letting him do his job until he decided to come at me with a sedative. You know how much I hate those things, Coulson.” There was no way he was going to be knocked out, nope, he could fucking handle it! “I’m not in any horrible pain at the moment, I can do without it. He needed the flight back to think about how he was going to ask Tony out. There was no way he was allowing someone else to once again cockblock his thought process.

One look at the determined look Clint was giving him had him rolling his eyes and sighing. “Fine.” He waved the medic away from Clint as he walked over to the stretcher from where he’d been checking the flight plan with the pilot. “You annoy me, Barton, and I will taze you.”

“Like I’ve never heard _that_ before.” He said with a smirk. 

“Yeah, the difference is I’ll actually do it this time. Or I’ll take away your bow for a week.”

“Alright, alright, I get the point. You’re disturbing my thought process; go do handler stuff, Super Coulson.”

Coulson didn’t even grace the statement with a response; it would just make Clint talk even more. He had to get Natasha on the phone; she would know why Clint was being extra childish. There was definitely something going on, he’d noticed when Clint made the medic put the IV line in his other arm so he wouldn’t have to remove the Stark bracelet. Yup, he needed to call Natasha. 

 

* * *

 

When Clint wakes up he’s in the infirmary wing in the helicarrier. He hates that, going to sleep in one place and waking up in a whole other one. His head throbs and he can feel the after effects of a painkiller slowly seeping out of his body, he hates that too. After coming up with a plan to woo Stark, he’d let his eyes drift close, Coulson must have allowed the medic to finally sedate him. He groaned and rubbed his face with his hand, a light chuckle had him tensing up. It took him a minute to realize it was Natasha; the reason he hates being sedated, his awareness slows down to a snail’s pace. “How long?” He grunts.

“Just a few hours actually.” She says with amusement in her tone. Coulson had called her from the plane to talk about Clint’s change in behavior; she had pretended nothing was wrong with Stark to save Coulson the headache. When he found out they had fallen for each other he was going to flip out, no longer one child, but two. She found it all way too amusing.

“I hate sedatives.” Someone was going to pay for this.

“Don’t worry, Coulson tore the medic a new one, he didn’t know he sedated you while checking your IV.” She had moved over to his bed by now and made him move over to give her room. They did this a lot whenever one of them got hurt, it was a sort of reassurance, they had to make sure the other was going to be fine.

Clint smiled as he imagined Coulson yelling at the medic, even for his very calm demeanor, if pissed off Coulson could be the scariest man around. He moved over and hissed as his legged throbbed with pain. Natasha was alert and staring at him in seconds. “It’s going to be sore for a while, you know.”

“Idiot.” She rolled her eyes before settling beside him, she wouldn’t offer to get the nurse so he’d get painkillers, he would just refuse it. “Only you can go on an Intel mission and end up in a gun fight.”

“I wasn’t trying to get into a gun fight. In fact I wanted to get home as fast and safe as possible.”

“Any reason you wanted to come back fast?” Natasha smirked as she buried her face on his side. He was her brother, or what she figured a brother would be like if she had any, she would lose it if he was to die. Missions like this always reminded her that she could very well lose him and she would not be there to help him or at least be with him as he died. It was something they had promised each other, they would try to be there for each other no matter what.

Clint grinned; Nat already knew otherwise she would have asked differently. “What did he say?”

“I am not playing messenger to either of you.” She would have punched him had he not been hurt and currently in the infirmary.

His eyes widened, this meant Tony had said something, otherwise she wouldn’t have said that. “Tasha, what do you know?”

She shook her head “Whatever is going on, you guys have to figure it out yourselves.”

Tony had been informed by Jarvis that Clint was back from his mission and currently in the helicarrier’s infirmary. He looked up the mission information as he heard the news; it was just supposed to be an intel mission. Why had he not sent a message for help? He’d been outnumbered by the enemy and he hadn’t used the communicator he’d given him; assassins and their need to prove their badassnes. He sighed as he grabbed the edible arrangement he’d asked Pepper to get for him. It was a sort of joke, Clint had complained about people thinking it was okay to apologize or cheer someone up with cut up fruit, so of course he was going to give him some cut up fruit to cheer him up.

“I think it’s going to be alright.” Clint whispered to Natasha as he placed his chin over her head. He was saying it more for his benefit than hers; he needed all the strength he could get.

He reached into the edible arrangement and stole a few blueberries. What? Walking while carrying things made him hungry; lucky for him he was carrying something edible and delicious. “Cliiiiiint, sweetheart.” He stopped in his tracks as he saw Tasha on the bed snuggling with Clint. “I just, I was just bringing this for you.” He said as both Natasha and Clint turned to look at him. He ran out of the room as soon as he put the edible arrangement on the table by the door.

“What was that about?” Clint frowned as he saw Tony run out of the room.


	3. Cupid and Tin Can

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is wondering when Tony and Clint will finally get it together. I'm sure Bruce is an eye-roll master.

“He has to talk to me at some point.” He told Steve as he sparred with him. At this point everyone but Tony knew that Clint liked him. Of course, no one really knew what Tony did or did not know. He was currently avoiding everyone in the tower; how he was doing it was a complete mystery to everyone. Bruce would get to the lab to find new equations and experiments waiting for him but no sign of Tony. Clint had made it his mission to sit in the kitchen the whole day one time with no sign of Tony. He groaned as Steve clipped him on the ribs.

Steve rolled his eyes and kept trying to punch Clint, avoiding his injured leg. He was stronger than Clint, but Clint was faster than him. He was very good at dodging the hits that Steve threw. “Shit, sorry Clint.”

Clint rubbed his ribs as he limped over to the bench where he’d put his water bottle. “It’s alright, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“I can see that.” Steve paused as he grabbed his towel and wiped the sweat off his face. “If this is going to be a problem, Clint…” He didn’t finish his sentence as Clint leveled him with a glare.

“It’s not going to be a problem Steve. I can concentrate on the field and we all know Tony can too. We _are_ allowed to have problems in our regular lives without people thinking it’s going to affect our performance on the field.” He grabbed the bottle of pain killers that he’d put next to the water and popped two pills into his mouth. He wasn’t supposed to be putting strain on his leg, but fuck if he wasn’t getting bored doing nothing. “I have to go.”

Steve looked on as Clint stormed, limped, out of the gym. He shook his head, he hadn’t meant to piss of Clint, but at this point the tension between Clint and Tony was affecting everyone in the tower. No one knew where Tony was and when they did bump into him he gave them some random excuse and left as quickly as possible. Steve looked up as Natasha walked into the gym glaring at him. Great, he was going to now hear it from her for upsetting Clint.

Natasha had bumped into Clint as he limped out of the gym. She’d asked him how he was but had gotten no response. Instead of pushing the question she shrugged and let him get on his way. She knew when to push for information and when to let him calm down, this was definitely a time to let him cool down. She narrowed her eyes and walked towards the gym, if Tony had upset Clint then she was going to tear him a new one. To her surprise she found Steve in the gym not Tony, and he looked like the guilty party in the current issue. “What did you say to him?”

“Nothing Natasha, we were sparring and he mentioned being distracted. I just wanted to know if it was going to be a problem.” Without warning he felt Natasha’s fist collide with his face. It didn’t really do him much harm, it stung but it wasn’t painful. “What?!”

“Never, and I mean **never** think that Clint would allow something personal to get in the way of his job.” She had really thought Steve was starting to understand how they functioned. They all had issues, things that other people would not be able to tolerate, but they had been trained to not let it affect their duties. She huffed and turned leaving a shocked Steve staring after her.

Clint headed towards the kitchen to find something to snack on before locking himself into his room for the rest of the day. “Jarvis, any way you can tell me of Tony’s whereabouts?” He asked as he reached the kitchen.

_“I’m sorry Master Barton, but Master Stark does not wish me to inform you guys as to where in the tower he is.”_

Well, at least he was in the tower. Clint sighed and opened the cabinet looking for something sweet to drown his sorrows in. He’d look in the freezer for ice cream but he was sure Natasha had consumed it all. “Stupid Thor probably ate all the pop tarts and cookies. Damn.”

“Talking to yourself?”

Clint’s head snapped up as he heard a voice, the damn painkillers always made him like this. He cursed as his head collided with the cabinet’s door. “Bruce. Shit man, give a guy some warning.”

Bruce chuckled as he walked over to Clint. “You alright? It’s usually hard to surprise you.”

“Yeah, just took some painkillers and stuff. Ouch, my poor beautiful head.” He grinned as Bruce rolled his eyes, he knew now he was putting on a show. “Just looking for something sweet to snack on, but the big oaf has raided the kitchen already, and Natasha gobbled down all the ice cream.”

“Apples are sweet; they also keep the doctor away.” Bruce grabbed an apple and passed it to Clint. “For a bunch of super heroes, some of you have the unhealthiest eating habits on the planet.”

Clint looked at the apple as if it was the most horrible thing anyone had ever handed him. “Apples are too healthy; I need to eat away my feeeeelings.” He looked at Bruce and raised an eyebrow. “Really Banner?” He lifted his shirt showing Bruce his six pack. “I think I’m good.”

Bruce rolled his eyes and took the apple away from Clint. “You look like you’re ready to collapse; maybe you should go take a nap. I’ll have Jarvis wake you for dinner.” He didn’t wait for Clint to protest but rather grabbed him by the arm and led him out of the kitchen and onto the elevator.

He didn’t really have the energy to argue with Bruce anymore, whatever energy he’d had left had gone away with the bump he got on his head. “I’m not going because you’re making me, Banner. I had already decided on taking a nap, I still wish I’d had something sweet to munch on.” He yawned and waved to Bruce as the elevator doors closed.

“These Avengers are like babies.” Bruce mumbled as he walked back towards the kitchen. It was his turn to take care of dinner tonight. At first it had seemed silly to assign cooking duties, but as they learned more about each other it seemed only logical. Bruce was better at cooking Middle Eastern and South American food. Steve was good at making good ol’ American meals. Natasha’s specialty was Mexican and Italian. Clint was better at baked goods, but he could hold his own making dishes from random countries. Tony and Thor lacked cooking skills, so on their days take-out it was. Bruce pulled out his recipe book and began to flip through it. He was in the mood for chicken tonight. “He’s not in here, Tony.”

“How do you do that?” Tony asked as he walked into the kitchen, he still looked around for good measure. He moved over to where Bruce was standing trying to seem as though he wasn’t worried or nervous or scared that a Russian spy might attack him if she were to spot him. “I don’t even know who you’re referring to.”

Bruce was going to develop a headache if he kept rolling his eyes at the rate that he was. “I’m talking about our resident archer, cupid, birdie, Hawkeye, Clint, arrow guy, Agent Barton.” He used every nickname everyone had for Clint and smirked when Tony blushed. He still didn’t understand why they were not together. Clint wanted it, so did Tony and yet here they were. “Anyway, I found him here looking for something sweet to munch on but Thor raided the kitchen earlier so I sent him to take a nap.”

“Goldilocks ate up the whole pantry didn’t he?” Tony glared at the mostly empty cabinets before switching his attention towards what Bruce was doing. “What will you be cooking for us tonight? I’m in the mood for kabobs can you make those? How about some shawarma? Oh or maybe it can be like shawarma kabob type thing!”

There was something wrong with the people he now considered friends, maybe he was just as crazy as they were since he still hung with around them. “I’m not making you a shawarma kabob, now leave me before I decide to make you guys eat coleslaw only.” He flipped to the next page of his recipe book and tried his best to ignore the fact that Tony was still standing right next to him. “Why don’t you go do something about the lack of sweets in the tower, Barton seemed really upset over it.”

Tony arched an eyebrow as Bruce threatened him with making only coleslaw for dinner. He wouldn’t. He glared at his science bro trying to determine whether he was bluffing or if he’d still make food if Tony stood there staring at him the whole time. His next words caught him by surprise and as he began to blush he stammered out. “You know what; I think I left my soldering tool on. Can’t have the tower catching fire now, can we.”

Bruce grinned as Tony began walking out of the kitchen. “I’ll have Jarvis let you know when I’m done.” He called out as he continued his recipe examination.

* * *

 

Clint stepped out of his room feeling groggy but somewhat more rested. His leg still hurt like a bitch but it was a whole lot better than earlier in the day. “Da hell?” He stood frozen at his door as he saw the basket of sweets that was right by his feet. He picked it up wincing as a minor cramp moved through his leg. He looked at the post it note that was attached to it and smiled as he recognized Tony’s scrawl. _Be wary of giant gods of thunder that wish to steal the sugary goodness._ He smiled as he walked back into his apartment and put the basket on his coffee table. Clint laughed as he started pulling out the awkward stacked sweets from the box. Stupid Tony.

He was nervous, really nervous. He’d obviously tried different methods to seduce people before, but he’d never done something like this. He muttered curses at the bags of candy and boxes of cookies as he tried to stuff them all into the basket he’d found. “Clint better like this, I’m an engineer, an inventor, not a basket maker. Did that rhyme? I wonder if it rhymed, Jarvis did that rhyme?”

_“I don’t think it did sir.”_

“Don’t hate Jarvis, do not hate.” He pulled out a post it note from the stack he usually used to leave small notes to Bruce with. He had to write something funny but that didn’t yell out “I’m in love with you please love me back, pretty please.” He scribbled something he found funny and placed it on one of the cookies boxes at the top. He was now done; all he had to do was deliver it to Clint.

Bruce wasn’t surprised to see Tony had missed dinner, he’d come up with some sort of excuse dealing with one of the current Marks. He still put a plate to the side and stuck a post-it that said TONY on it. He’d made chicken gyros with sweet potato fries. It was a tense dinner and half way through it he was wishing he’d come up with an excuse not to be at the dinner table as well. Natasha was glaring daggers at Steve while Clint tried to calm her down. Steve was looking like a kicked puppy and Thor was being Thor. Coulson showed up a few minutes after they’d all sat down at the dinner table. He grabbed a plate and thanked Bruce before taking a seat next to him. “You could cut it with a knife.” He mumbled to himself.

“I’d like to cut all these, children with a knife.” He heard Phil mumble back. He looked just as uncomfortable as Bruce felt and he had to wonder if he’d had to deal with as much drama and unresolved tension as he had. “At least Tony’s not here.”

“Don’t relax just yet, the night is not over, he can still make it to dinner.” Bruce smirked as he took a bite of his gyro. “Any ideas on how to fix it?”

Phil shook his head as he dipped some sweet potato fries into honey mustard. “I am staying out of it, Doctor Banner. Staying the hell out of it, I only came because I heard you had made sweet potato fries.”

“What are you two mumbling about over there?” Clint asked grinning when Bruce and Phil turned to look at him.

“The difference between you guys and a day care center.” Phil said blandly.

Clint gave them a shocked expression and moved his hand to his chest. “You wound me Coulson, ouch.” Natasha stopped glaring at Steve long enough to grin at Coulson.

“Children” Phil said and shook his head once more. This is why he was okay with just being Phil ‘badass’ Coulson, he didn’t need a family to take care of a couple of kids, he already had Natasha and Clint. More recently he had gained four other ones, though Steve and Bruce were far more helpful than any of the other children. He finished his food and looked up at the team minus Tony. “We have a briefing tomorrow for an upcoming Avengers mission; I expect to see everyone there at 0800 hours, everyone.” He turned to look at Clint to make sure he knew he was speaking specifically to him. He gave Bruce one more thank you and left the tower.

Clint was walking back to his room when a thought hit him. He changed his course heading once back to the elevator. As he got to the roof he grinned and began talking to Jarvis. “So Jarvis, are there any protocols you need to follow if I get too close to the edge of the roof?”

_“Master Stark has set up steps that I must follow should that happen. May I ask why you ask?”_

“I’m trying to get his attention, I figure this is a sure fire way to get him to be in the same place as me.” He had to climb the last two flights to the roof; his leg was starting to hurt again.

_“I’m sure there are other ways to get his attention than to jump off the roof, Master Barton.”_

Clint laughed as he reached the door that led out into the roof. “I’m not going to jump Jarvis, but he doesn’t have to know that, does he.”

_“I guess not.”_

“Follow your protocol and let him know once I’m sitting on the ledge, don’t worry Jarvis I’ll be fine.”

 _“Seems Master Stark has found his match.”_ Jarvis said as Clint stepped out into the roof. The first step he had to take was to observe that Clint was within safe distance of the ledge. The second was to make sure there was no present danger from the weather or enemies of the Avengers. The third was to inform Tony that Clint was on the roof, and finally the last step was to prepare a suit once Clint was too close to the ledge.

Tony had just finished eating the plate of food he’d snuck out of the kitchen. He was yelling at Dummy when Jarvis’ voice alerted him that Clint was on the roof. He pulled up the security camera footage and watched as Clint stood on the roof. This wasn’t unusual for Clint; he liked going there and watching the city from the roof. What worried Tony was the fact that he was still limping, which meant his reflexes might be slower or his stance on the roof was not as safe. “No present signs of danger?”

_“No enemies in sight, however it is rather windy up there at the moment.”_

“Keep an eye on him, Jarvis. Have one of my suits ready just in case.” He tried to go back to his work but couldn’t keep his eyes off the screen that showed Clint. He was still standing there staring out into the dark sky. Tony figured he was just going to stand there when he saw him start to move towards the edge. “Damn it.”

Clint sighed as he took in a breath of fresh air. He loved being out on the roof, it was very calming for him. He stood on the roof staring out at the sky above him for a few minutes before he began to move towards the ledge. It was a slow move since he was now back to limping rather than walking. “Stark better get here because I’m starting to turn into a frozen hawk.”

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Tony said as he hovered in front of Clint in the Iron Man suit.

“What the fuck?” Clint gasped out as he held on to the railing by the edge of the roof. “Shit Tony, I was just going to sit, my leg is still somewhat busted.”

“So you can sit on the couch, in the living room, not on the edge of the roof. Your leg is busted, you could fall and die, or you could trip and hurt yourself even more. Jesus, Clint.” Tony landed on the roof and lifted up his face plate. He reached out grabbed Clint’s hand moving him towards the center of the roof.

Clint smiled as Tony stammered through his explanation. So far his plan was going just as he’d planned; now all he had to do was make sure they got to talking about the giant elephant in the room. “I wanted some fresh air. The balcony was occupied by a mopey Steve.”

“Mopey Steve? Why is he moping?” Tony could’ve let go of Clint’s hand once they got closer to the roof door, but instead kept holding it.

“Natasha punched him after he suggested that our relationship could get in the way of us meeting our objective in the field.” Clint looked pointedly at Tony, hoping he’d catch the mention of ‘our relationship’, ‘our’, and ‘us’.

Tony felt himself blush as Clint spoke. They had a relationship? “Uhm, our relationship?”

Clint rolled his eyes “Yes, tin can, the one you’ve been avoiding talking about since I got back. I mean what is all this about?  I was sure you liked me and I like you back, so why are we still in this place?”

He sighed and got out of the suit. “I can’t be who you need me to be. I always screw things up and you need someone you can rely on and stuff. Look at Pepper and me, she gave it all and I managed to always screw it up. It’s always been like that, I just don’t want to screw things up with you because then I’d lose you as a friend too.”

“Who do I need you to be? I don’t think I’ve given you any guidelines or self-help relationship books that you need to read before being with me.” Clint looked at Tony still confused as to what had brought this on. He hadn’t really said what he wanted in a relationship or a partner.

Tony sighed as rubbed his face. He moved over to the roof door and slid down the wall as he sat on the roof floor. “I saw you and Natasha when you were in the infirmary. I can’t give you that comfort that you have with her. I suck at being a boyfriend and I spend days locked up in my workshop. You deserve someone who can be there with you and make you feel at home. I can’t be that, I’ll never be someone’s anchor or grounding point. I will never be able to…”

“Shut up, Tony.” Clint sat down beside him, wincing as pain shot up his leg. “I don’t need another Natasha or Coulson. Don’t you think that if that’s what I needed I’d be with one of them? Yes, they make me feel whole and as though my home is wherever they are, but you give me something different. No relationship is perfect, I know I’ll get annoyed when you lock yourself in your workshop, but you’ll get annoyed when I do it at the shooting range. Natasha is like a sister to me and Coulson is like my very grumpy uncle. It would be too much to expect everyone I let near me to take on the roles that they have. You also will never know if you can be someone’s anchor point until you try. For a genius, you’re not seeing this in a very smart way. If it doesn’t work out then it doesn’t work out, we are both adults and we can both move on.” Clint took a breath before continuing. “Did you stop talking to Pepper when you guys broke up? No. Is she still one of your best friends? Yes. So why do you assume you’ll just ruin everything?”

“I” Tony was speechless he just stared at Clint. He loved the way his hair looked silver under the moonlight; his blue-grey eyes looked more intense under the night sky. Why was he overthinking all of this? “I’ve been stupid, haven’t I?”

Clint laughed and reached out for Tony’s hand. “We both have, now come here and kiss me.”

“Bossy much?” Tony grinned as he shifted over to kiss Clint.

He let out a happy sigh as Tony’s lips met his; he allowed Tony entrance and let him map out his mouth. Clint shifted to try and get Tony at a better angle but ended up groaning in pain as he put pressure on his leg. “Sorry, shit.” He felt around his pocket for the bottle of painkillers.

Tony pressed his forehead against Clint’s as their lips parted. “I should get you to bed.” He said standing up and extending his hand to Clint.

“Moving a little fast there don’t you think, Tony?” Clint grinned as Tony rolled his eyes. He reached out for Tony’s hand when he offered it and allowed him to help him get up.

“Not like that, Cupid.” He opened the door and helped Clint down the stairs and into the elevator. “Though you could come and sleep on my bed. You know, so I can make sure that you’re alright, make sure that leg doesn’t give you any problems.”

Clint smirked at Tony’s excuse to get him to his room. “I guess so, since you care so much about my well-being.” He dry swallowed two pills while in the elevator. “I should warn you though; I’ll be a dead log once these stupid pills kick in.”

Tony arched an eyebrow and led Clint to his room. “I can glue feathers on you while you sleep.”

“That’s a great way to start a relationship.” Clint mumbled as he took off his shirt and jeans staying in nothing but boxers. He wiggled his eyebrows as Tony looked at him. “This is as much show as you get tonight.”

“What a tease.” Tony said forcing himself to focus on something else. He removed his own shirt and changed into some sweats before climbing into bed with Clint. He smiled as Clint cuddled up to him, his head on his chest by the arc reactor, his fingers tracing the outer edge of the reactor. He settled for brushing his fingers through Clint’s hair. They stayed like that until Clint’s breaths evened out, eventually Tony followed him into dreamland.

Clint sighed as he felt Tony’s warmth next to him. It just felt better waking up next to him; he could stay there all morning. All morning. Oh shit! He sat up and looked at the bedside table; it was already 8:20 am. “Shit! Tony, wake up, we’re late!” He got up and put his jeans on wincing as he felt a leg cramp. “Come on, wake up, Coulson is going to kill us.”

“I don’t wanna, five more minutes.” Tony grumbled as he tried to block out the sunlight coming in through the window. He whined as Clint moved over to his side and shook his shoulder. “I don’t care, I have an impenetrable suit, he can’t really do much to me.”

“Damn it.” Clint rolled his eyes and moved over to Tony’s closet getting a pair of jeans and the first shirt he saw. He threw them at Tony and then began putting on his boots. “You’d be surprised at what Coulson can do, don’t sell him short. He once took out two robbers at a gas station with a bag of flour.”

Tony paused as he heard Clint. “What?” He slipped on his jeans and shirt reaching under the bed to get his shoes. “How did he, you know what, I’m not even going to ask you to elaborate.”

Clint grinned, “Yeah, it’s best not to know the entirety of what Coulson is capable of doing to you. Now come on, we are already 20 minutes late and we have to figure out how to make it look casual.”

“You’re still wearing what you wore for dinner last night though, so it’s kind of like the walk of shame for you, isn’t it?” Tony wiggled his eyebrows at Clint as they walked out of his room. He wasn’t really all that bothered about being late, it’s not like they got paid for it. Well he didn’t, Clint probably did.

Clint looked down at himself as they began walking to the situation floor. “Is it bad?”

“Oh no, I find it very hot. I’m working on trying to convince you to just head back to my room.” He kissed Clint while they were in the elevator, reaching down to put his hand under the archer’s shirt, grinning as they archer let out a small moan.

“Can’t, Coulson will ground me by giving me some shit mission. He can’t ground you, but he can ground me.” He let go of Tony when the elevator doors opened. “Should you walk in first or should I?”

“We could both walk in together while making out, you know, make a show of it.”

He turned to glare at Tony, “Just go in and then I’ll go, blame it on my busted leg or something.”

Tony smirked and nodded. He opened the door and gave everyone the biggest shit eating grin he could muster. Natasha simply shook her head at him, but he could see the small smile she was holding back, it was obvious she knew already. “Sorry I’m late, overslept.”

Clint waited a beat before walking in trying to blend into the background so as to not seem so obvious, completely oblivious to the fact that Tony had made it clear to everyone in the room. “Sorry.” He mumbled as he sat down.

Phil sighed as Tony walked in, he was contemplating glaring at Stark to let him know he was mad, but it wasn’t really going to do much. Tony was always late so why waste a glare on him. He arched an eyebrow as Clint walked in a minute later. “Next time walk in together, this just wasted more time.”

“What?” Clint tried to give everyone the most innocent expression a master assassin could muster.

“I told you they’d notice you were still wearing last night’s clothes.” Tony said in a mock whisper, he winked as Steve turned to look at him and grinned when he looked away blushing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I really enjoyed writing this fic, I hope you enjoyed reading it. I'm working on a few other ironhawk and avenger fics at the moment, hopefully I get to finish them so I can post them.


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